Years & Years, Communion, review: 'master crowd-manipulators'

Although the synth-pop trio lack invention, they are extremely effective, says Helen
Brown

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Years & Years: winners of the BBC's Sound of 2015

By Helen Brown

12:00PM BST 04 Jul 2015

Seeing how the mopey pulsations of Sam Smith’s electrosoul dominated 2014, it’s little wonder that his former support act duly found themselves anointed the Sound of 2015 by the BBC’s annual poll of critics. The synth-pop trio are essentially the Sound of 2014… continued.

At first glance, Years & Years seem more boyish than Smith. He stands still in sharp suits, while they bop about in T-shirts. Smith’s voice is rich, deep and mournful, rising up through starched collars, while that of Y&Y’s curly-mopped frontman, Olly Alexander, often springs into a sweet falsetto with the puppyish charm of a young Michael Jackson.

But, at 24, Alexander – who started out as an actor, most famously playing a stalker in Skins – is a year older than Smith. Architect-turned-synth-player Emre Turkmen is 27 and Australian bass player Mikey Goldsworthy is older. Influenced by Beyoncé’s pop and the more experimental work of Radiohead and Flying Lotus, they released their debut single in 2012, but really found their electronic voice after signing to ubercool French label Kitsuné in 2013 and releasing the rather magical song Traps later that year. Alexander’s wide-eyed sorrow took flight as he sang of owls and hares to a strangely hooting synth sound and peculiar marching beat.

Since signing to Polydor in 2014, they have adopted the Nineties house sounds that are seeping into almost every pop album at the moment, liberally dusting the chart with Casio fingersnaps and artificial marimba of the kind older clubbers will still find ping-ponging around their skulls from a decade spent dancing to Robin S’s Show Me Love.

If all this sounds sniffy, then I should say that even if Years & Years aren’t taking any risks with the sound of the moment, they use it to good effect. Turkmen’s background ensures the songs are structurally solid and graceful. They do a better job than Smith at building and releasing tension, and varying texture, although Alexander’s thinner voice doesn’t make the knockout emotional connection that Smith’s can.

This year’s chart-topping single King is a perfect example of how they can get the crowds moving. Their smoke’n’laser-charged Glastonbury set was a blast. I’m not sure this is a Sound of 2015 we’ll recall in 2020, but Olly and the boys are certainly Kings of the Now.